Sri Lanka’s bowling woes continue

Dilshan Madushanka

Sri Lanka is left dealing with a few injuries to their bowling unit. Fast bowler Matheesha Pathirana who has an injured right shoulder is under rehab, and according to team manager Mahinda Halangoda, has started bowling from yesterday after which he will be assessed.

Sri Lanka is woefully short of match-winning bowlers as the first three matches have starkly revealed. Pathirana before he got injured, leaked 185 runs in the two matches he played and his replacement Lahiru Kumara was no better, his four overs against Australia costing 47 runs.

With the exception of left-arm fast-medium bowler Dilshan Madushanka, the rest of the bowling has been very poor. Madushanka with seven wickets (avg. 26.28) from three matches is head and shoulders above the rest of his colleagues whose sport averages of 90 and over and in totality have taken fewer wickets than him – 6.

With reserve player Chamika Karunaratne coming into the Sri Lanka squad replacing injured captain Dasun Shanaka, Sri Lanka has to name another reserve player which in all probability will be Pramod Madushan, a right-arm medium-fast bowler who has appeared in three ODIs.